Friendly rivalry spurring them on

EIGHT Tamworth tentpeggers are headed to the Newcastle Show this weekend to compete in a major lead-in to the Sydney Royal Easter Show Tentpegging.

And there was plenty of friendly rivalry around this week when The Leader arrived at AELEC to talk to the two teams about the two big events as well as having a chat to Barry Biffin about his trip to India to compete in the world championships.

Tamworth has two tentpegging teams, Tamworth 1s and 2s.

Mike Rowland organised the publicity shoot for both teams and joked the 2s would be out there practising “because they need the practice to try and beat us”.

Wayne Biffin, who helped found the Tamworth tentpegging teams with his brother Barry way back in 1984, is part of a 2s team that has renamed themselves Peel Valley.

“They thought we should have stayed Tamworth 2,” Biffin said.

“We competed as Tamworth 2s in last year’s national championships but now we’re Peel Valley.”

Complete with their own black and white shirts, the team of Todd Carey, Wayne Biffin and Wayne’s two sons Byron and Grant Biffin, will be out to beat not only all their opposition at this weekend’s Newcastle Show but also the Tamworth team of Bryson Roser, Barry Biffin, Amery Thompson and Mike Rowland.

“They need the practice,” Mike Rowland joked as he and his teammates looked on on Tuesday afternoon.

What they weren’t saying was they were practising in private to make sure the Peel Valley “2s” didn’t upset them at Newcastle or at the Sydney Royal.